Cop3 •
PROGRAM OF EXERCISES
■1
NORTH CAROLINA DAY
(MclVER MEMORIAL DAY)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1906
CHARLES DUNCAN MclVER
1860—1906
ORATOR, EDUCATIONAL STATESMAN, TEACHER
.A
w
ISSUED FROM THE OFFICE OF THE
STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
RALEIGH
"It has been too common a political teaching that
the best government is that which levies the smallest
TAXES. The future will modify that doctrine AND
TEACH THAT LIBERAL TAXATION, FAIRLY LEVIED AND PROP-
ERLY APPLIED, IS THE CHIEF MARK OF A CIVILIZED PEOPLE.
The savage pays no tax/^ — Charles Duncan Mclver.
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C'llAKLES Dl NCAX ^IclVER.
PROGRAM OF EXERCISES
NORTH CAROLINA DAY
(MclVER MEMORIAL DAY)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1906
COMPILED BY
R. D. W. CONNOR
ISSUED FROM THE OFFICE OF THE
STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
RALEIGH, N. C.
CHAPTER 164
OF THE PUBLIC LAV/S OF 1901.
An Act to Provide for the Celebration of North Carolina Day
in the Public Schools.
TJie Gc>icj-(il _ls.s'( ;»/_//.'/ of yarth (''<irolina do enai-l :
Skctiox 1. That the 12ih (hiy of Octolier in each ami every year, to
he caUed "Xoitli Carolina Day," may l)e devuteil, by appropriate exer-
eises in the ]iuljlic schools of tlie state, to tlie considei'ation of some
topic or to]iics of onr state history, to be selected liy the superintendent
of puldie instnu-tion: Provided, that if the said day shall fall on Sat-
urday or Sunday, then the celebration shall occur on tlie Monday next
following: ]'rovidcd further, that if the said day sliall fall at a time
when any such school may not be in session, tlie celebration may be held
■within one month from the beginninff of tlu' term, unless the superin-
tendent of public instruction shall designate some other time.
Sec. 2. This act shall be in force from and after its ratification.
In the General A.ssembly read three times, and ratilied this the 9th
day of February. A. D. 1001.
CONTENTS.
The Old Xoutii Statk William Gaston.
Charles Duncan McIver. A Sonnet, . . . William C. Smith.
Charles Duncan McIver. A Sketch, . . . R. D. W. Connor.
The Coronach, Sir Walter Scott.
Charles D. McIver as I Knew Him, J. Y. Joyner.
"He Died Poor that He Might Make Others Rich.'" Josephus Daniels.
America, ,S'. J^. Smith.
Stories of Charles D. McIver, J. T. Joyner.
Southern Educational Policies Charles D. McIver.
Ho! For Carolina, William B. Harrell.
PREFACE.
To tlic Teacher:
We have deemed it wise and j^roper to turn aside this year from our
]ilan of eidfl)ratina' Xortli Carolina Day in the pul)]ic schools by the study
of the great events in the past history of the state in chronological order
to let the children study the life and character of one who, in the
years to come, will l>e recognized as the greatest educational leader
of our day and as a great central figure in the educational and industrial
development of our state. We wish this day to he devoted, therefore.
to a reverent study of the life, character, and unselfish service of
Charles D. Melver, the children's friend, the teacher's friend, the state's
friend, the eflfective and courageous champion of all that vitally
affected the interests of these.
We know no more efTective means of teaching to tlie children of this
generation the all-important lesson of civic service and civic duty, of
inspiring them with the higliest ideal of patriotism and right living
and of inculcating in them the hot educational doctrines than the
study of the splendid objectdes-on in all to be found in the simple story
of the life and teachings of this man.
Every child in North Carolina ought to contribute something to the
fund for the erection of an heroic bronze statue to his memory. Such
contribution would Ije an olijcctdesson to each child, never to be forgotten,
in properly honoring the memory of a great teacher who imselfishly
devoted his life to the children and the state. Let every teacher urge
every child to bring on North Carolina Day a contribution to this fund.
Forward all contributions by post-office order, if possible, to me.
Very truly yours,
J. Y. JOYNER,
Superintendent Public Instruction.
NOVEMBEK 5. 1906.
THE OLD NORTH STATE.
BY \VILLIA:\r GASTON.
[This was Dr. Mclver's favorite song-. He made it the rallyint? song- of the college, and
had the students sing it at every commencement and on all other public occasions. It was
a joy and inspiration to watch his face as the six hundred girls sang it.— J. Y. J.]
Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her!
While we live we will cherish, protect, and defend her!
Though the seorncr may sneer at and witlings defame her,
Our hearts swell with gladness whenever we name her.
Hurrah! Hurrah! the Old North State forever!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State!
Though she envies not others their nitrited glory,
Say, whose name stands foremost in Liberty's story?
Though too true to herself e'er to crouch to oppression,
Who can yield to just rule more loyal submission?
Hurrah, etc.
Plain and artless her sons, but whose doors open faster
At the knock of a stranger, or the tale of disaster?
How like to the rudeness of their dear native mountains,
With rich ore in their bosoms and life in their fountains.
Hurrah, etc.
Then let all who love us, love the land that we live in
(As happy a region as on this side of Heaven).
Where Plenty and Freedom, Love and Peace smile before us.
Raise aloud, raise together the heart-thrilling chorus !
Hurrah! Hurrah! the Old North State forever!
Hurrah! Hurrah! the good Old North State!
CHARLES DUNCAN MclVER.
\villia:\[ c. smith.
Rest, son of Carolina, sweotly rest :
The boon long self-denied now meetly thine.
Obedience yield we to the call divine.
Our comfort this — the ^Master knoweth best.
He knoweth best, yet sore we feel our need ;
So great the void, we may not smile nor sing.
But, bowed in grief, our altar-gift we l)ring
And mid our tears look mutely up and plead.
Grant us with him to see where honor lies;
To build for God and man, and not for self;
To face the future witli untroubled eyes,
Intent on lasting service, not on pelf.
Thus life lives on its purpose to fulfil
\Yhen weaiw evelids close and tired hands e:ro\v still.
CHARLES DUNCAN MclVER.
15Y R. D. W. CONNOR.
THE FARMER BOY.
To-day there are thousands of boys and jrirls in North Carolina who
are at school in pretty school-houses, sitting in comfortable desks,
reciting to good teachers, and looking fonvard to bright futures, because
Charles D. ]\lclver was their friend. They may never have seen him,
and he may never have seen tliem: but he loved thom; worked for
them; spoke for them; wrote for them; fought and won battles for
them. His picture ought to hang before the eyes of CA'ery school child
in North Carolina. His name ought to be on their tongues. They ought
to know by heart the story of his life.
Charles Duncan Mclver, the Children's Friend, was born in Moore
county, in the Old North State, September 27, 1860. The names of
most of the people living in the neighborhood began, like his own, with
"Mac,"' for these people were descendants of Scotch Highlanders. His
own grandfather was born in the Highlands of Scotland and came
to North Carolina when he was only eight years old. So Charles D.
Mclver was the grandson of a Scotch Highlander.
-Last year in our "North Carolina Day" exercises Ave learned that^.the
Highlanders are "a strong and active race, large in stature, well-devel-
oped in body, robust in health." They are economical, thrifty, and char-
itable. They are brave and patriotic. Tliey are generous and true in
their friendships. They love the truth and fear God. Tliey believe in
building churches and schools. They regard education and religion as
the chief concerns of life.
Such a man was the father of Charles D. Mclver; such a woman was
his mother. Together they made him such a man. Tliere were two
things the father always insisted upon his boys doing: first, to attend
regularly the best school within reach ; second, to work regularly on the
farm on Saturdays and during vacations. The best schools then were
the private schools, and to one of these Charles D. Mclver was sent. He
was a good student, for he knew too well the value of an education to
waste his time in school. He was a good worker on the farm, for he
knew too well the value of the lessons learned in the field to waste his
holidays ai^d vacations in idleness. "Saturdays were as regular work-
days for young Mclver as for any of the employees on the farm. He
escaped no kind of farm labor, from planting, harvesting, splitting rails,
minding the gap, log-rolling, corn-shucking, piling brush, and digging
ditches, to iiIo\\ing- a deaf imile in a new ;i'i<:mnd with a liull-tonLiUC plow.
Xo loafera were allowed on that farm. Idleness was considered an
unpardcnalde sin."*
\(;uii^ AIcl\<T learned 1o love \\-ork,, wliether ^\•itll his books or
iiehind the plow, lie used to say that the hardest work lie ever tried
to do was restin^u'. After he became a man his friends often beLr,2;ed him
to take a vacation and rest. To one of them who told him he was ruin-
ing his health l)y hard work, he said: "I cannot re-t until my work is
done. ]\Iy joy is in my woi'k. 1 had rather do it the best I can and
live a shorter time."
THE UNIVERSITY STUDENT.
\\'hen he was seventeen years old he left the farm and neinhborhood
scliool a)id went to the University of North Carolina. Thei'e, too, lie
worked hard for four years. When he was graduated in ISSl he was
one of the best scholars in his class. He stood first in Greek and French,
and shared with three others the first place in Latin.
He made many valuable friends at the university. Some of them
are Cliarles B. Aycoek, former Governor of North Carolina: Edwin A.
Alderman, a great orator and educator: James Y. Joyner. State Super-
intendent of Public Instruction, and many other such men.
But the two men who had most influence on him were Dr. Kemp P.
Battle, then president of the university, and Dr. George T. Winston, then
professor of Latin. Dr. ]\lclver said that Dr. Battle regarded "the
people of North Carolina as a great big family, each member of which
owes to eveiy other member afft'ctionate sympathy and loyal support in
any worthy undertaking. He loves the people of this state. * * *
Every sprig oi grass and every bird that touches the soil of North
Carolina is dear to him. •■■ * He is proud of our history and is
proud that he is proud of it. " * No man can come under his influ-
ence" without wishing "to be of service to so good a state and so great
a people.''
"The other man to whom I feel indebted is Dr. George T. Winston,"
-who inspires "in all the youths he touches self-reliance and the audacity
to undertake large tasks."
The spirits of these two great teachers united in Charles D. ]\lclver.
He, too, came to think of the people of North Carolina as "a great big
family." He was proud of her history. He loved "every sprig of grass
and every bird that touches her soil." He wished "to be of service to so
good a state and so great a people." And he, too, had "self-reliance and
audacity to undertake large tasks." His great work in North Carolina
could not have been done had he not loved the state and had faith in her
power to do great things. This work is a splendid example of the rich-
ness that comes to the state through the life and work of her teachers.
Isaac Erwin Avery in the Charlotte Obscri-er.
HIS FIRST VOTE.
After his graduation yoinig Mclver went to Durham to teacli in a
private seliool. So great was his success that Ijefore the chxse of his first
year he was made principal of the schooL \ ^Yhile he was teaching in
Durham an election was held upon the question of a local tax for
a public graded school. If the people voted for the tax and started the
public school, INlcIver knew that he would have to close his private
school. But he knew, too, that there were many children in the to^vn
who would never get an education unless the public schools were estab-
lished. What should he do? Should he vote for the tax and against
his own school: or should he vote against the tax and for his own
school? It did not take him long to decide this question, for he was
anxious "to be of service"' to the children. He was willing to close the
doors of his own school-house if he might only open the doors of the
public school where all the children could go. He cared less for his own
welfare than for the welfare of the children. So he worked for the
local tax and on election day voted for it himself and persuaded other
men to vote for it. He was always proud of the fact that his first vote
was cast for a local tax for public education.^.
His OAvn school was closed when the graded school opened; and the
people of Durham at once called upon him to teach in the graded school.
He was principal of this school for one and one-half years and then
went to Winston to teach in the graded school there which had been
started by Calvin H. Wiley. After nearly two years' work in Winston,
he became principal of the Literaiy Department of Peace Institute in
Raleigh, where he remained until June. 1889.
A GREAT SCHOOL FOR WOMEN.
CDuring all these years he had Avorked hard to improve himself as a
teacher. He visited other schools; talked with other teachers; read
many books on teaching. During his vacations he had taught in sum-
mer schools and institutes for teachers. \ From this work he learned
that the greatest need of North Carolina was the education of all her
children. He saw that the state must have better school-houses and
longer school terms ; but above all, he saw that she needed better school-
teachers. He knew that no school is anj' better than its teachers, and the
great question was, How can the teachers be improved ?
Mclver found the answer to this question. He said the state should
build a great school for teaching and training teachers. Such a school
is called a "Xormal"' School or College. In 1889 Dr. Mclver made a,
great speech before the Teachers' Assembly in favor of a Normal College.
The Teachers' Assembly then appointed a committee to go to Raleigh
and urge the legislature to vote money for such a school. Mclver was
placed at the head of this committee and worked hard with the members
of the legislature; but they would not do as he asked.
10
Instead of voting for the Normal School, the legislature deeided to
send a man into every eonnly in North Carolina to hold meetings and
teach the teachers and to talk to the people about the education of their
cliihlren. Two men were seh'cted fcjr this worlv — Charles D. Melver and
Edwin A. Alderman. They began their work in September, 1880. They
met the te;iehcrs of every county in thf' state and taught them how to
teach. They held pul)iic meetings of preachers, fanners, lawyers, mer-
chants, editors, meclianics, and evei'yl>ody els(^ who would come. They
made eloquent speeches to them aliout the educition of their children.
They urged them to vote taxes on their properly to support schools.
They spoke about the Normal College for teachers and urged the people
to demand that tlieir legislators vote the money for it. Everywhere they
went the people became more than ever interested in educatiim ami in the
improvement of their schools.
Wlien the legislature met in ISHl IMcIver again went lo Raleigh to
woik for the Normal College. It was hard work, for there were many
people who were opposed to such a college. But he lost no chance to
talk to them — in the capitol. on the streets, in the hotels, wherever he
could get a member to listen to him. lie told them that the only hope
tens of tliousands of lioys and girls in the state had to get an education
was in the puldic schools. ]Most of the teachers in these public schools
were women. For the good of the cliihlren. then, the state ought to have
a great college where these women teachers could be educated and
trained how to teach.
If the state will build such a college, he said, tliousands of girls will
become educated women, \\ithont such a school most of them would
grow up in a state of ignorance. Ignorance is the worst kind of sla\ery.
Such a college would free the white girls of North Carolina from this
curse. Besides, North Carolina would then secure teachers better than
she had ever had, "who wall bless her because she has blessed them."'
Dr. McIver was so deeply in earnest and worked so hard that he
persuaded the legislature to vote the monej^ for the college. It is
called the State Normal and Industrial College for Women and is
located at Greensboro. Dr. McIver was elected president and remained
president until his death, a period of fourteen years.
During these years the college has had wonderful growth. Tlie two
or three small buildings on ten acres of ground have grown to eleven
biiildings on one hundred and thirty acres of ground. The number of
teachers in the college has increased fi'om fifteen to fifty. More than
three thousand young women have been students there. They are daugh-
ters of rich men and poor men; of preachers, doctors, and lawyers; of
merchants, manufacturers, and farmers; of mechanics, engineers, and
day laborers ; of men working in almost every form of honest labor.
They have come from the country, towns, and cities. Girls from every
county in the .state have been students there; and students of the Nor-
mal College have taught school in everv countv. INIore than two thou-
11
sand teachers have been trained at this great college how to teach; and
they have taught more than two hundred thousand North Carolina boys
and girls. Truly, as Dr. Mclver said, these women have blessed North
Carolina because she has blessed them.
Charles D. Mclver built this great college. It is "not a thing of brick
and stone," but a great school with "'an open door of opportunity to
every worthy white girl, however poor, however rich, within the borders
of the state — a means of fitting her for good and useful citizenship."
It is a college in which is taught "sound learning, liberal culture, earn-
est living, and high thinking."' It is "the product of the unselfish love
and labor of one man" — Charles D. Mclver.
THE EDUCATIONAL LEADER.
The building of the State Normal and Industrial College is the greatest
Avork done in North Carolina within the last twenty-five years. If Dr.
Mclver had done nothing else, this work alone would place him among
the greatest men of North Carolina. But he did much more. Wherever
there was a word to be spoken in the cause of education, especially the
education of Southern boys and girls, his voice was heard. "No meeting
of Southern educators seemed complete without him ; no educational
program satisfactory until his name appeared on it.""
Three years ago a leading North Carolina paper expressed the gen-
eral opinion of his work. "Dr. Mclver," it said, "has been a leading
force in every movement looking for progress, educational or otherwise,
in North Carolina. * * * When the history of this decade is written,
the story of the public services rendered his state by Charles Duncan
Mclver will be one of the brightest pages in the splendid volume of
patriotic achievement. There is not a man in the state who has made
himself felt so powerfully and so helpfully for progress."!
In July, 1905, a great New York magazine. The Outlook, expressed
the view held of him in other sections of the country. "In the Southern
states," it said, "there is no man better entitled to be called a champion
of public schools, and of the whole idea of popular education, than
Charles Duncan Mclver of North Carolina. * "■ ■' He is a man of
intense earnestness, energy, insight, and common sense. For the past
twelve years his voice has been raised in behalf of popular education,
not only in every county in his own state, but throughout the South and
in great national assemblies. There is no abler speaker on this subject
than Dr. Mclver. He has been the soul of the forward movement in his
region."!
This "forward movement" has been largely a movement for the
improvement of rural schools. A few years ago several patriotic men
from various sections of our country, who are interested in Southern
* N. W. Walker in The University Magazine, October, 1906.
t Quoted in MS. of Prof. W. C. Smith.
12
echiculiou, came togetlicr and formed the "Southern Eilncation Board."
Tlieir purpose is to lielp impro\e the I'ural schools of the Soutli. ])r.
Mciver was one of the leading- members of this board. When the bfiard
decided to send speakers all over the South to talk to the people about
education, they put Dr. Alelver at the head of tliat great work. Pei'ha])s
no man in our country did mure for the education of the boys and girls
on Southern faims 1han he did.
Not only did he wurk liim-idf. Ijut he persuaded many others, men and
■women, to liglit for the cause of the children. Proud of the fact that the
first vote he had ever cast was a vote for local taxation for schools, by
his great eloquence and earnestness he persuaded thousands of others to
follow his example. Local taxation for longer terras, better school-
houses, better teachers, and better supervision — this was his plea. Elo-
quently, earnestly, and successfully he pleaded the cause of the back-
woods boy and the cross-roads girl when they had no other powerful
friend to help them.
Invitations to speak came to him, not only from all over North Caro-
lina, but from the South, the North, the East, and the West. Often he
had to make liis appointments months in advance. He went, not where
he could make most reputation for himself, but where he could do
most good to others. If any doubt arose the chances were nearly
always in favor of the smaller and weaker community. The message
was carried to the few hundreds that gathered at the cross-roads store
or the country church rather than to tlie larger numlier who assembled
in opera house or city hall. The message, too, had reference to the
special needs of time and place, and so was a sowing of good seed in
suitable soil. It is safe to say that Charles D. IMclver never addressed
an audience without having a distinct end in view, and that end the
doing of good works. There are few places in North Carolina where
his voice has not been raised in behalf of some public measure. Large
audiences, too, in great cities far removed from his native state, have
greeted this educational leader, and from his lips have heard whole-
some truths relative to our educational progress. Thus he has been
invited to make educational addresses in more tlian one-half of the states
in the Union.*
He was always welcomed in large gatherings in all parts of the
country among the great leaders in our nation. But Charles D. ]\lclver
w^as never^ so happy as when helping a small rural community in his
own state.
Many honors came to Charles D. Mciver. He did not seek them; they
sought him. The_y sought him because he thought more of the welfare
of others than of his own ambition. In 1S92 he was president of the
North Carolina Teachers' Assembly. In 1905 he was president of the
Southern Educational Association. He held several high and responsi-
* MS. of W. C. Smith.
ble positions in the National Educational Association, thr' largest educa-
tional association in the Avorld. He was president of the Normal
ochool Department; and in tlie summer of 1905 came within a few
votes of being elected president of the association itself. His friends
believe that, if he had lived, he would have been elected president in
1907. He was a member of the board of trustees of the University of
North Carolina and always gave the university his loyal support. Tlie
university loved to honor him and conferred upon him the honorary
degrees of Doctor of Letters and Doctor of Laws. He was offered posi-
tions in colleges of other states at salaries higher than the one he was
receiving. More than once he was asked to accept responsible business
positions paying salaries from two to four times as much as the state
paid him. But no amount of money could tempt him to leave the college
he loved or to forsake the cause of the children of North Carolina. Had
he yielded to these temptations, he might have left wealth to his widow
and children; but choosing rather to serve others, he left them the
glory of his name. He died poor that he might make others rich.
Dr. Mclver was most happy in his home life. While he was teaching
in Winston he was married to Miss Lula V. Martin, also a teacher.
Four children, a son and three daughters, have added happiness to
their home. A simple home was his, blessed by love and kindness and
culture and trust in God.
DEATH.
The greatest ambition in Dr. Mclver's life was to be of service to
others. It was while he was rendering a service to his city and to his
state that he met death. On the 17th of September, 1906, he went to
Raleigh as a member of a committee from the city of Greensboro to wel-
come William Jennings Bryan to North Carolina. Returning from Ral-
eigh he was attacked by a severe pain in his chest; and before medical
aid could reach him fell dead in the arms of one of his friends. A lai-ge
crowd had gathered at the little station at Burlington to hear the great
Nebraska orator, but at his first words their cheers and applause died
away: smiles became tears, joy changed to grief.
"I am sure that you will agree with us," said Mr. Bryan, "that this
is not the time or occasion for a political speech, when I tell you that
just after we left Durham one of our party. Dr. Charles D. Molver, sud-
denly died. He was the man who first invited me to North Carolina
twelve years ago. 1 have never been to your state since but that he was
on the reception committee and the first to greet and clieer me.
When I recently reached New York from abroad Dr. Mclver was there
to greet me and invite me to North Carolina.
"His life, perhaps more than that of any man I knew as well, illus-
trated the value of an ideal. He was an educated man whose sympa-
thies were with the uneducated. He moved in the highest circles, yet
snapped the golden cord unselfishly lifting others up, and he devoted that
14
life towards hrinpiim hlcssinas to t!ie ])noi\ His death is a loss, a fearful
loss to Ills eoiuitry, lii> slate, liis eily nf (ircensboro. to the glorious insti-
tntiiiii (if Icaininc;' wliicli is lunv his iiioniniient. to his family, and a frreat
personal Id-s to me. 1 hid yoii a sad jjood-bye."
The TU'ws of ])r, I\rclvfr"- drath earried gi'ief to thousands who had
kiei\\-n and lnvc(I liini. 'I'hroiiLihoiit the South, in remote states of the
North arid \\"c>1 . men who had been eneouraoed hy his words and
inspii'ed hy his spiiit frll a sudden vacancy in their lives.
In his own l)clo\cd statr ;jiii'f was universal. In every corner of North
Carolina iln' ni'ws was heard with liowcd head and moist eyes. "Men on
the street eorncis. women in the school-room, children in the remotest
rural district — all felt Ihat. the state had suffered a terrilde calamity.
A ])artisan pri'ss in Ihe mi<l~t of a ]ieat(Ml jiolitical compaipi ceased their
warfai-e, and at his yrave united in eulern,- of the dead. ^Vith one accord
iliey mou)-ned his di'ath as llie loss of the state's most useful citizen.
I!ut no class of ovir people f(dt his loss so deeply as the teachers, whose
greatest friend he was. ITundi'eds of teachers caufirht from his presence
a sj)irit tliat sent them to tlieir dillicnlt tasks, from the collei,'-e reeitaticn-
I'oom 1o the luimhle lon-cahin school-hons« in the hackv.oods. with hearts
ajire and souls inspiri'd to "ive their best to their country and to
luinianity, carini;- naui^ht for the vast personal sacrith-cs frequently
in\olved.
Note.— The author of this sketch acknowlcdRes with sincere thanks and appreciation
the kindness of Mr. W. C. Smith, professor of English in the State Normal and Industrial
College, and of Mr. Charles L. Van Noppen. publisher of "A Biographical History of
North Carolina, " for the use of the MS. of Professor Smith's excellent sketch of Dr.
Mclver, which is to appear, with portrait, in volume V of that valuable work.
CORONACH.
BY SIR WALTER SCOTT.
He is gone on the mountain.
He is lost to the forest.
Like ;i summer-dried fountain,
\Mien our need was the sorest.
The font, reappearing,
From the raindrops shall borrow.
But to us comes no cheering.
To Duncan no morrow !
Tlie hand of the reaper
Takes the ears that are hoary.
But the voice of the weeper
\^'ail.s manl'.ood in glory.
Tlie autumn winds rushing
Waft the leaves that are searest.
But our flower was in flushing
When blighting was nearest.
Fleet foot on the correi,*
Sage counsel in cumber,t
Red hand in the foray —
How sound is thy slumber !
Like the dew on the mountain.
Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone, and for ever!
* Hollowed hillside,
t Trouble.
CHARLES D. MclVER AS I K!^EW HIM.
[Address fif J. Y. Joynt-rat the Mclver Memorial Meeting' at the State Normal and
Industrial ColleLve, November 20. 1906.]
Could I obey tlie dictates of my heart, I should pay the tribute of a
sacred silence to my dead friend to-day amid these scenes hallowed l)y a
thousand gracious memories of him. ]\ly love and admiration are too
great to find expression in "matter-moulded forms of speech"; but use
and wont must liave their due and I, too, must try to speak.
He was tlie truest friend, tlie warmest-hearted, the most generous, the
most actively helpful, the most self-forgetful. He loved his friends and
they knew and the whole world knew that he loved them. He sought
tlieir counsel, loved their companionsliip, and found their approval
sweet. He was ever on the alert for opportunities to help them and to
enable them to help themselves. He often saw such opportunities and
seized them for his friends before they saw them for themselves. I
have known him, unasked, to lay down his work and travel across the
state at his own expense, without reward or the hope of reward, to do
a friend a kindness. He never allowed any one to speak evil of his
friends in his presence or to misrepresent or misunderstand them, unre-
bidced and uncorrected.
And he was the friend of all mankind. All who knew him Avere his
friends. He had the genius of friendliness. He made friends witli
strangers more easily than any man I ever knew. There was in him
that touch of nature that dwells in every elemental man "that makes
the whole world kin" and that made him at home and at ease with the
learned and the unlearned: with the high and with the humble. It was
this that gave to his friendliness tluit personal touch that made so
many his personal friends and filled so many with a sense of personal
loss in his death.
He loved his state and his people. He was consecrated to their inter-
ests and jealous of their honor and reputation. Love of North Carolina
and her people became a positive force in the life of every student that
ever came within the circle of his influence.
He was full of hope and good cheer; of sunshine and of sympathy.
He scattered these wherever he went. His presence was a joy and a
benediction. In it, selfishness was shamed, the tongue of slander was
silenced, littleness, narrowness, and prejudice slunk away.
"The weak and the gentle, the ribald and rude.
He took as he found them, and did them all good."
He was full of enthusiasm, and his enthusiasm was contagious. He
was full of courage, and his courage, too, was contagious. He was full
17
of streng-th, and the weak grew strong and tlie strong grew stronger
under his influence.
He was full of energy- — tireless, persistent energy. He was full of
nonesty, moral and intellectual, private and public — old-fashioned, rug-
ged honesty. It beamed from every feature of his face; it shone in every
act of his life; it rang in every tone of his voice. There was nothing
hidden about him, because there was nothing to hide.
He was full of faith in God and man and faith in the final triumph
of the right. Therefore, he never gave up a fight for right and was
never cast downi by defeat. The blood of the Scotch Covenanter flowed
in his veins, and devotion to duty and consecration to conviction were
ruling passions with him. He was ever impatient with the lack of these
in others. He was a hard fighter for what he believed in, but he always
fought a clean fight; he always hit above the belt; he always respected
a generous foe; he bore no malice when the fight was over.
He had "a hand as open as day to melting charity." He could never
turn a deaf ear to any cry of need or to any call for any worthy object.
How much he gave away will never be known until the record is
opened at the great white throne. Money to him was "so much trash as
may be grasped thus," save as it could be made to serve him and to
serve others.
He had large capacity for enjoying the good things of this life and
believed in enjoying them in all proper ways. Often have I heard him
quote with heartiest approval the words of the old showman in Dick-
ens: •"The people muth be amused." In his philosophy of life, pessi-
mism, puritanism, pharisaisni, asceticism had no place; religion, pure
and undefiled, had large place.
He was a man of great intellectual power and of rare versatility — -
a masterful man. Power dwelt in him and went out from him.
There was in him much of saving common sense ; much of creative and
constructive power; much of that gift of vision vouchsafed only unto
greatness. He was a fine judge of men. He took their measure with
almost unerring judgment. He saw their faults, their weaknesses, Avas
patient with them and pitied them. He saw their virtues, their
streng-th, admired them and used them. He never allowed the one to
blind him to the other. He had the rarest power that I have ever known
of finding the best in men and in getting the best out of men. He was
a great leader of men.
\Mthout any of the arts of the orator, he was the most convinc-
ing, the most irresistible speaker that I have ever heard. He was too
intense, too earnest to employ paltry decorations of speech. He spoke
directly and simply as one having authority. He had a message and
felt, Woe is me if I do not deliver it. He forgot himself in his message.
Men heard him gladly; thought not of the manner of the man or of the
forms of his speech, but never forgot the message that fell from his
18
lip-:, the five of earnestne-s and (■lltllnsia^m that was >tniek fnuii lii<
.soiil as lie sjKike, and kindleil kiiiilre<l fires in tlieirs as they lislened.
He \\(julcl have hren siieces-ful in almost any eallinjj — what a <;rpat
lawyer he eonhl ha\(' heen : what a sii]irrh leader in politics and public
life: what a spli'iidiil capta.in of industry in any line; what a prince of
promoters in any proat eoniniereial enterprise! He conld have been
almost anything' he chose to hr.
All his >plendid ]>owers he jiyini^ly laid upon tlie altar of public
service. 1 b(die\(> that God amdnted him and set him apart as a servant
to his people. He heard the call to service and followed it as singly and
as devotedly as ever noble knight in Arthurian legend followed the Holy
Grail. He had a high ideal of public service, and to it he subordinated
eveiv tempting offer of private gain or personal aggrandizement. Public
education was his chosen field of service. With the clear-sightedness of
greatness, he saw that universal education was the only hope of universal
emancipation and Ihe only safe foundation for the broadest democracy.
He saw, too, that the surest, shortest road to univei'sal education was
the education of woman, the mother and teacher, and, through her. the
education of all the children of men. To this special field, therefore, he
devoted his chief attention; but there was no department of education
Avliich did not receive his helpful touch. His conception of public
service, however, was not narrowed to the one field of public education.
He was active in every Held that otTered opportunity for public service
in social, political, commercial circles, in his town, in his state, and
in the nation.
This was the man, Charles D. IMclvcr, as I knew him — great in mind,
great in heart, great in service to his fellowmen : how great, men did not
fully understand while he walked lieside them, but know now by the
lengthening and ever-lengthening shadow of his life that death has
thrown across the state, across the South, across the nation. He is
gone! To those of us who knew him best and loved him most, life can
never be the same again- — there can be no other friend like him.
"He is not dead, he doth not sleep —
He hath awakened from the dream of life,"
" Tis Death is dead, not he,"
'HE DIED POOR THAT HE MIGHT MAKE OTHERS RICH."
BY JOSEPHUS DANIELS.
Not many months ago there came to Dr. Mclver a great temptation — ■
the supreme temptation of his life. He had passed the forty-fifth year
of his life and his twonty-flfth year in the teaching profession and
poured himself into his work so completely that he had not thought of
making money, and sometimes he was oppressed by the thought that if
his health should fail he would have nothing to take care of himself and
his family. He was wont to say to his friends that as a teacher grew
older and needed larger income, lie could look forward to no increase in
salary, but to an old age of privation. And that outlook was one that
sometimes weighed upon his spirits.
I shall never foi-get a long conference in Raleigh between Mclver,
Joyner, and myself, that went far past midnight less than a year ago,
when Mclver put aside a temptation to make money that he might con-
tinue the great work to which he had consecrated his life. An offer had
come to him, an inviting offer, from a commercial enterprise of stand-
ing to accept an important position at a salary of $7,500 a year.
Before that, he had declined several flattering offers to go to other
states in the work of his profession. But when an offer at a salary of
three times what the state paid him was urged upon him by a broad-
minded business man who saw that Mclver's ability and energy woTild be
a valuable asset, the duty of caring for his family and providing for old
age caused him to give the proposition serious consideration.
1 knew he would never yield to the temptation, just as I knew that
most other men would have accepted the offer without a moment's hesita-
tion; and yet he was troubled because he felt that his duty to his
family and to himself could not be easily put aside to serve the state,
which paid him only enough for a comfortable living. He said he
wished Joyner and myself, whom he esteemed as brothers, to advise
him what course he ought to pursue. He thought he Avas holding the
matter under advisement, but way down in his heart there was a devo-
tion to the higher duty that would have prevented his acceptance of
the business proposition if it had carried a salary of twice seventy-five
hundred dollars. He argued that, having given twenty years to the
public, the time had come when he owed something to his family. Both
Joyner and myself argued that he would be happy in no other work,
and the enlargement and growth of the college was a greater service to
his family than if he could give them a million dollars. I shall never
forget the reply he made to our argument:
20
"it is voiy well, boys, for you both to tell me that I ought to .-tay
and devote my life to the work. You are serving the public also, but
Joyner owns property and faces no old age of poverty, and every lick
that Daniels strikes he is adding value to his property that will give
him an incijuie if his health fails and care for his wife and children if
lie dies. 1 have not even a roof to my head that belongs to me and not
a brick of all that 1 have buildi'il is mine or could help my family if I
.should die."
1 was ashamed then that I had dared to put myself in the same class
wit!i liini or to presume that my service to the public weal was com-
paiable to his sacrifice. A silence fell upon us — the sort of silence that
only come.-, between men who understiuid one another and iove each
otln'i'. lie broki' the silence. He had gone through his temptation and
his trial. The advice he sought really had little to do with his victory,
for if every friend had advised him to leave the work to which he had
put his hand, he could not liave done it. He loved it belter than any-
thing excejil his own flesh and blood. He thought he was considering
the oiler, but there never was a moment when he could have accepted it,
though renniiiiing at the post of duty seemed to sacrilice his material
interests and prevented any provision for old age.
And as 1 looked Wednesday upon the splendid buildings he had
erected at the college, his words came back to me, that not one brick
he had placed upon another belonged to him or would lielp to support
his family or care for him in his old age. And yet, with that knowledge,
he put aside the natural de>ire of the htisband and father and tlirew
liimself into the woik for humanity -with fresh zeal. The incident was
closed. His conseciation. new and complete, to his work gave him joy
and happiness. \Vhen he hau met and conquered the temptation to put
making money, in an honorable way and fnr the highest purpose, above
the \ision he had seen and the duty In- had accepted, there came to him
a |)eace and a purpose that gave him larger vision and a higher
and)ition than he had liitherto known, and when he died he was planning
greater things than iiis associates had dreamed he entertained. There
never was a time when the temptation to leave his life-work could have
moved him; btit I have thought how much richer his good wife and
children are because of his noble public service than if he had turned
aside to make money for them. They have in the high purpose of his
life the heritage of a love so great as to find alone in perfect sacrifice to
a great and humane idea its liest and final expression.
Said Mr. Bryan in his Greensboro eulogy: "We have a great man — -
Rockefeller, the richest man in the world; and if I had to choose
between leaving the record of Dr. Mclver and leaving tiie record of
Rockefeller, 1 would a thousand times rather leave Melver's record to
posterity."
There is something, after all, higher and better than the inheritance
of vellow gold!
AMERICA.
BY S. F. SMITH.
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love!
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills,
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above!
Let music swell the breeze
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Lot mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong!
Our fathers' God, to Thee,
Author of liberty.
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!
STORIES OF CHARLES D. MclVER.
DY SUPEKIXTEXDEXT J. Y. JOYXKR.
MclVER'S STRUGGLE FOR AN EDUCATION.
AT THE PREPARATORY SCHOOL.
McImt was ri'arotl on a farm in Chatliam county. Before the war
lii> fatlicr was in comfortable circumstances, owning a good farm and
a number of slaves. He had sometliing of the Scotch economy and thrift
and made a comfortable and easy living. He was a man of inlluenco in
his community. He was a man, also, of large sympathies and was
known throughout the c<jmmunity for his charity, as a great friend of
all tiie poor people in the surrounding country. Like .so many other
Southern planters, upon his return home after four years" service in the
L'i>nfederate army, he found liis property swept away. Avith nothing left
but land and debt. The boys went to work on the farm. There was no
sort of farm -work that Charles U. ]\lclver was not familiar \\ith and
that he had not done on his father's farm. Throughout his life he
loved the farm and the farmer. He believed that every boy ought to be
taught to dig and delve in the soil with his own hands and be brought
into this sort of close contact with Mother Xatiire and Mother Earth.
The community in -which he lived was a Scotch community. The Scotch
of this state have always been great believers in education. His father
and his Sccitch neighbors, therefore, even in their jioverty, managed
to keep in the neighborhood a good private school. Mclver received his
preparation for college in this neighborhood school. The school was
taught by an old-fashioned schoolmaster who believed in the power of
drill and drudgery. Mclver always held this teacher in the highest
esteem.
AT THE TXIVERSITY.
\\'hen the time came for him to go to college, his father was unable
to provide the necessary funds. His Ijoy was anxious to go to college
anil the father was anxious for him to go, so the money was borrowed.
Mclver went to college and completed his college course on borrowed
money. Out of his meager salary he paid every cent of it back in a
few years after leaving college. He entered college in 1877. His home
was about thirty miles from the University of Xorth Carolina at Chapel
Hill. His father took him and two of his cousins, who entered college
Avith him, across the country by private conveyance to the university
commencement in June. 1877, to make arrangements for entering. It
was the country boy's first long trip from home. It was the first large
ropiesoiilativc North Carolina crowd that he had ever seen. Our
greatest statesman and leader and lover of the common people, Zebnlon
B. V^rnce, at that time governor of the stal^, delivered the commence-
ment address. The occasion, the speech, and the groat man who deliv-
ered it, produced a profound impression upon the young boy that
became a distinct and shaping influence in his life. He has often
described the occasion to me and told me that it was the beginning of
a new era in his life. From that day he was an ardent admirer of
Governor Vance. Because of this experience and his recollection of the
inspiration of it to him, he was ever afterwards a firm believer in
requiring students to remain to commencement exercises and in the
value of bringing masterful men to speak to students.
He made a fine record as a student at the university. He was well
prepared, especially in the classics. He was an unusually fine Greek
scholar, winning the medal for the best scholarship in his Greek class at
the university. He soon became a leader among the college students.
In the universit,y, as afterwards in life, however, he used his leadership
largely for the promotion of the interests of others, never seeking college
honors for himself, but rarely failing to secure them for the friend.s
whose cause he championed.
I recall an amusing incident illustrating his power to fight a fight
to the finish and win without leaving any burnings in the hearts even of
his opponents. There were two parties in the Dialectic Literary Society,
of which he was a member, known as the South Building and the West
Building parties. Mclver was the leader of the West Building party.
The elections for college honors had just been held and the West Build-
ing party had won. On the night after the election, one of the leaders
of the South Building party, a classmate of ^Nlclver's, walked into
Mclver"s room and said to him: '']Mac, you fellows have beaten us
shamefully and I have been sent by the South Building party to give
you a beating." Then tapping him lightly on the shoulder, he said:
"I guess this will do." The truth is, nobody coiTld bear any malice
against Charles D. Mclver. lie always fought a clean fight, and even
his opponents could hardly help loving him when the fight was o^'er.
I have no doubt that Melver's struggle and sacrifice in getting his
college education helped to explain his sympathy for struggling boys
and girls of limited means, his eloquent speeches in their cause, his
lifelong devotion to the university, and his love and gratitude to his
state. The university never had a more loyal son than Charles D.
Mclver. He stood up for its interests everywhere and at all times. He
never failed to respond to its call for anything. It was always his
custom to attend the commencement. He missed only one commence-
ment of his Alma Mater after his graduation in 1881. He was provi-
dentially detained from that. Great souls like his are always grateful.
Through all his life he felt that he owed to the university and to the
24
stale a debt of gratitude that he could never repay for inakinnf it jiossi-
ble for liim to 2fet an education. He determined to devote his life to
helpinr;- every lioy ;uid girl in North Carolina get an education. He
aided in every jiossilde way every movement set on foot for the advance-
ment of the inti'resls. the progress, and the prosperity of the state that
he loved with the tender love of a son for his mother.
MclVER'S FIRST ATTEMPT AT PUBLIC SPEAKING.
As a college student, ]\lclver could not be induced to speak in public.
He wrote a graduating essay, but begged to be excused a!id was excused
from delivering a graduating address. He was always a fine talker and
on the campus was usually the center of an interested group of his fellow-
students when he began to talk: but he did not believe that he could
make a public speech.
Immediately after his graduation he was employed to teach in a
private school at Durham. During the session the principal of the
school, on account of the death of his father, resigned and left the
school in charge of ]McIver. There was a rival private school in the
town taugiit by a clergyman, Dr. Deans. ]\lclver"s school had closed
and he remained a few daj's afterwards to attend the commencement
exercises of Dr. Deans' school. On the closing niglit of these exercises,
after the regular exercises were o\'er, as is frequently the custom, the
audience called for short ><jjeeehes from a number of prominent citizens.
Much to his surprise and confusion, somebody started a cry for Mclver.
The cry was so persistent and prolonged that ^^Iclver finally rose from
his seat in the audier.ce, covered with confusion, his face as red as a
peony, and began stammeiingly thus: "I sympathize with Dr. Deans —
1 sympathize witli Dr. Deans — I sympathize with Dr. Deans." Unable
to give utterance to anothei' thought, he sat down amidst laughter and
applause. It was some years afterwards before he ever attempted to
make another speech in public. He became one of the strongest and
most irresistible speakers that I have ever heard. He became, in spite
of his natural timidity, a great speaker, because he liad a message and
was controlled by a profound conviction that it was his mission to
deliver that message. He could never speak with any power or effective-
ness when he did not have some definite message to deliver and some
specific end in view.
HOW MclVER FOUND HIS MISSION.
After the death of his father, ]\lclver being the oldest child, became
the real head of the familj'. When his only sister was prepared for
college, he looked about him for a place to send her. He was determined
that she should have a college education and it was necessary for him
to help provide the fumls to enable her to secure it. He examined the
courses of study and the charges of the various colleges for women in
25
the state. He found, as he expressed it, that, at any of the reputable
colleges for women in the state, his sister's annual expenses would be
aiiout twice his annual expenses at the State University. He found that
the courses of study were nothing like so extensive or thorough. Too
much attention was given to the ornamental branches, such as music and
art, and too little attention to the classics, English, mathematics, and
other branches of study that tended to develop real mental muscle and
give broad mental culture. No attention was given to domestic science
and those subjects that prepare women for housekeeping and home-
making or for fitting them to become independent and self-supporting.
He found, also, that he was taught at the university by a faculty cost-
ing four or five times as much as the faculty that would teach his sister
at any of these colleges, though she would have to pay twice as much
for instruction by this inferior faculty giving this inferior course of
study. He was not long in arriving at the causes of this difference. He
saw that the state for a hundred years, as he expressed it, had been
going into partnership with the men at the university and paying part
of the expense of higher education for them through state appropriations
and endowments. The churches, through the endowments of their col-
leges, had been doing the same thing for men. Philanthropists had been
doing the same thing for negro men and women in North Carolina. But
not one cent had ever been invested by state, church, or philanthropist to
decrease the cost of higher education for the white women of North
Carolina and to provide for them anything like equal educational oppor-
tunities. His chivalrous nature and his great soul rebelled against this
injustice to woman and this, perhaps unintentional, but none the less
inexcusable discrimination against her by church and state. He saw,
also, with the clear vision of a great mind that the educated woman
in home and school and social and civic life was the strategic point in
education and civilization. He tersely and forcefully expressed this
truth as follows :
"When a man is educated it is simply one more taken from the lists
of ignorance; but in the education of a woman the whole family is
taught, for she will pass on what she has learned to her children.
The education of one woman is far more important for the world's
advancement than that of one man."
From that moment his mission and his message were clear to him.
From that moment he became the ablest and most eloquent champion of
better educational opportunities for the women of North Carolina. He
believed in the people. There was nobody else to carry his message to
the people. He overcame his dislike to public speaking. He went to the
people. He never lost an opportunity to present to them with pen and
tongue this truth that he so clearly saw and with which his soul was
all on fire. Tlie people heard his message and believed in him. He won
his fight. To-day in North Carolina church and state are seeking to
give through endowments and appropriations to all women, rich and
26
poor, opportunities for hi.ufher education equal to tliose provided for men
and better adapted to tlie needs of women than licretofore.
Tlu- State Xormal and Industrial College is the enduring monument
of liis vietoi-y.
HIS KINDLINESS OF HEART.
One of the most beautiful traits of Dr. ]\IcIvor"s character was his
l)road democracy and his sympathy with the weak. A man as strong as
lie is often unsympathetic with weakness in others. It was this sym-
pathy and patit'nce with weakness that helped to make him a great
teacher and to win for him the admiration and the afi'ection of the weak
as wtdl as the strong.
The devotion of his servants to him was beautiful, but not more beau-
tiful than liis kindness to them. I remember when \^•e were abroad last
fall. 1 went with him one day into a clothing st(U'e in London. It was on
the eve of our departure for home. He had already bought a number of
presents for friends at home. In the clothing store I found him select-
ing a somewhat handsome checked English waistcoat. I said: "Mclver,
what in the world are you going to do with that?" Ho replied: "I
could not think of anything that would please Zeke more. I am going
to take it to him." Zeke is the negro janitor at the college. He has been
in Dr. Mclver's service for about twenty years. His devotion to him
and to his entire family is toucliing. I doulit if the heart of any friend
of Dr. Mclver was more rent with grief at his death than the heart that
beat in the bosom of Zeke, his faithful servant. When Dr. ]\TcIver died,
Zeke watched by his remains all night and could not be induced to leave
them for a moment. Next day he a-sked the privilege of driving the
carriage that carried the family in the funeral procession. No friend
has been truer or more thoughtful since his death to the widow and
children.
One of the old family negroes, whose father had belonged to Dr.
Mclver's father, was employed on the college farm. He had been
Mclver's boyhood playmate on the farm. Giles was his name. He was
devoted to Dr. Mclver and had been at work on the college farm for
years. Giles would get drunk occasionally, however, and when on a
spree would sometimes go to a festival and was liable to use a razor.
Giles got into trouble one night, and next morning he was missing from
his accustomed place on the farm. Nothing was heard of him for
several months. One day as Mclver sat in his office, a letter was
brought from Giles, in Philadelphia, stating that he was ill and out of
money and asking for a loan of .$30. Mclver did not wait to write, but
telegraplied him the money. As soon as Giles recovered, he returned,
homesick and penitent. Nobody knew of his coming or of his intention
to return. One morning Giles was found at his usual work on the farm.
This was all that was known or said about his escapade. He returned,
of course, every cent of the money borrowed.
SOUTHERN EDUCATIONAL POLICIES.
[Extracts fkom Addresses of Charles D. ^NIcIveu.]
THE MEANING OF EDUCATION.
"The supreme question in civilization is education. From the stand-
point of communities, states, and nations, education is an elTort to pre-
serve and transmit to posterity the best that we can see. and know, and
be, and do. Sometimes we think it is a pity that a good man who has
learned to be of service to his fellows sliould be called out of the world.
So sometimes ^^■e may think about an enterprising and useful generation;
but after all, the generations of men are but relays in civilization's
march on its journey from savagery to the millennium. Each genera-
tion owes it to the past and to the future that no previous worthy
attainment or achievement whether of thought or deed or vision, shall
be lost. It is also under the highest obligation to make at least as
much progress on the march as has been made by any generation that
has gone before. Education is simply civilization's etl'ort to propagate
and perpetuate its life and progress."
THE DEMOCRACY OF EDUCATION.
"It is the salvation of democracy that education cannot be bought
or given or inherited or sold, like clothes and what we choose to call
real estate. The person educated must contribute more to his education
than all others combined, though he cannot do the task alone. Parents,
teachers, tax-payers, and philanthropists can aid him: but all of them
combined cannot educate a man without his consent or Avithout his
systematic, patient toil. It is in this sense that every man is the
architect of his own fortime."
FOUR EDUCATIONAL NEEDS.
In my opinion, the majority of the schools of the South need and
need badly:
1. Better houses and equipment.
2. Longer terms.
3. Stronger teachers.
4. More effective supervision.
Reducing these needs to a common denominator, we have four distinct
calls for more money.
28
AN EDUCATIONAL INVESTMENT.
"There is a Inrge minilicr of people in North Carolina who believe
Unit tlie state on.sht to issue bonds for the proper physical equipment
of the state's educational institutions. All the money appropriated by
the peojile for educational purposes, whctlier in the district schools, in
the benevolent schools for the deaf and lilind and orplian asyhuns, or
in its coUe'ies and universities, is an inve>tnient, and while no individual
or eoriKjration can go into the biisincss of borrowing for current expenses,
it is a fai-t recognized by all corporations and by most individuals in
business that borrowing for investment in a plant or for permanent
imjirovement is not only wise, but it is generally necessary for any
great work. Unquestionably, it would be easy to find in any community
in Xorth Carolina strong, intelligent debaters on either side of the
question. There would be those who would insist upon the motto: 'Pay
as you go; if you can't ]i<iy, don't go.' There would be others equally
honest who w(nild say: "We must go, and, as the only way to go forward
as we ought to go is to Ixirrow from our richer selves in the future, let
us issue enough Ijonils to make the necessary permanent improvements
in the state's jdant in every department and show the same kind of
faith in ourselves that every important city in the state has shown in
itself by issuing bonds for public elementary and high school buildings.' "
STRONGER TEACHERS NEEDED.
"The school-teacher, if properly qualified, is our most important public
official. Those who teach the young are civilization's most powerful
agents, and society everywhere ought to set apart and consecrate to its
greatest work its bravest, its best, its strongest men and women. The
teacher is the seed-corn of civilization, and none but tlie best is good
enough to use.
"A higher standard of teaching, of course, calls for a higher standard
of compensation. Teachers are no better because the people do not
desire better teachers. On the streets of the cities of some of the
Southern states untrained and unskilled laborers, some of them illit-
erate, are paid $1.25 a day and jierhaps more. This is more than the
average public school teacher in the South is paid. I do not say it is
too much. I use it merely for the sake of comparison. * * * i repeat,
I do not think the compensation of the former class is too great, but the
person who builds citizens and shapes the character and thought of the
young is worth more to society than the man who builds houses and
molds iron."
THE INFLUENCE OF THE TEACHER.
"We frequently hear comments on tlie inferiority of teachers. Can
we expect to secure the most capable men and w'omen to train children
at a smaller wage than we pay convicts from the penitentiary when we
29
employ them to work on our public roads? * * " There is nothing in
this house that we would let a $40 a month laborer work upon, except
the brains of our children. You listened to a magnificent address here
last night on the economic value of an education: but a weakling
cannot train boys and girls into great men and women whose education
has economic value. We must have masters as teachers. I would prefer
tliat my boy and girl should come into occasional contact with a master
spirit, even if they did not gain so much literary training, than to come
into contact with a teacher with all the degrees that the colleges can
confer, but who is a wooden sort of a person without generous ambition
and without the power to inspire generous ambition in others. Let us
keep impressing upon the public that in order to secure masterful
teachers, who are the seed-corn of civilization, whose business it is to
hand down from this generation to the next the best that we have been
able to see and know and do and dream, we must be willing to invest in
the trainers of our children more money and time and thought than we
have ever yet invested in them. I do not want my children taught
geography by a person who has never been outside of the congressional
district in which she is teaching. I do not want my children to be
taught the relation between capital and labor by a man or woman who
never expects to see more than $150 or $200 capital for a year s salary.
"It is not a question of wasting the time of a child for six or seven
years, but it is the waste of the time of an active worker in after-life —
man or woman. Too many people underrate the value cf a child's time.
* * * There are people who seem to think that a little child's time
is worth nothing, and waste it by putting it in charge of a teacher with-
out skill and inspiration. We forget that it is the man or the woman's
time we are wasting. Six or seven years of a child's life wasted means
sixty or seventy years of effective manhood or womanliood wasted."
THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN.
"The chief factors of any civilization are its homes and its primary
schools. Homes and primary schools are made by women rather than
by men. No state which will once educate its mothers need have any
fear about future illiteracy. An educated man may be the father of
illiterate children, but the children of educated women are never illit-
erate. * * * Money invested in the education of a man is a good
investment, but the dividend which it yields is frequently confined to one
generation and is of the material kind. It strengthens his judgment,
gives him foresight, and makes him a more productive laborer in any
field of activity. It does the same thing for a woman ; but her field of
activity is usually with children, and therefore the money invested in
the education of a woman yields a better educational dividend than that
invested in the education of a man."
30
THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPERVISION.
Till-: STATi: SrfF.niXTKXDEXT.
"Tlie most important oniccrs in the South to-day are the state superin-
tendents of puldie inslrnction and the county superintendents. Unfortu-
nalely, the salaries of our state superintendents and their allowances for
traveling; expenses are not suflicient to secure the most effective service.
It is more imjKjrtant to any state in the South to liave a state superin-
tendent of towering ability than to have a governor or a congressman of
towering ability. In most of the Soutliern states we pay our state
superintendent of public instruction a salary of from $1,.500 to $2,000.
We pay our governors from $-'{.000 to ■'?5.000. Congressmen are paid
.'p.'), 000. In spite of this, some state superintendents are superior in point
of ability and elllcieuey to some governors. " * *
■'Every efficient state superintendent in the South knows that, under
the present conditions, his ]iarticu]ar -work is in tlie field and not in
the oflice; yet many of tlie l)(^>t su]ierintend(-nts are handicapped because
they cannot remain in the field and lalior where lal)or is most needed,
unless they are \\illing to do so at their own expense out of their meager
salaries. It is exceedingly poor economy on tlie part of the state to
limit, by inadequate provision for necessary traveling expenses, the
state superintendent's work.
THE COXXTY SX'PERIXTEXIDEXT.
"But let us now direct our attention to the county superintendent. He
ought to be the livest man and most inlluential leader among his people.
This is exactly what a few county superintendents are; but such men
are very rare, and it is no wonder they are rare. Nothing is so indica-
tive of the low ebb of public education as the pitiable price we are
willing to pay for the services of the coiinty superintendent. The secur-
ing of a competent and capable man for this great work is almost an
accident and is of rare occurrence.
"As a rule, an ambitious county superintendent with a family cannot
live on the salary of his position. And yet public thought needs to lie
stimulated most just where this man touches the life of the people. His
work, more than any other public ^^•ork in his community, needs a man of
great power, tact, and energy. He should be a man who can win the
confidence of the intelligent, lead the ignoran.t and illiterate, and give
hope and inspiration to plodding men of mediocre ability and position.
In an argument on general questions, he should be able to hold his own
with the strongest professional or commercial men he may chance to
meet; and in the discussion of educational questions he ought to be
more than a match for them. He ought not to be a mere examiner of
teachers or a gatherer of statistics. * * * The chief work of the
local superintendents now should be to show the county commissioners
31
and 'the powers that be' in politics and business what the educational
necessities of his county are, and how these necessities can be supplied,
and he ought to be able to lielp secure proper support from the people."
FUTURE LESSONS IN TAXATION.
"We have heard in ancient days that it is robbery to tax Brown's
property to educate Jones' children. In the future no one will question
the right of tlie state to tax the propertj' of Brown and Jones to develop
the state through its children. We and our fathers have too often
thought of a state as a piece of land with mineral resources, forests,
water-courses, and certain climatic conditions. The future will recog-
nize that people — not trees and rocks and rivers and imaginary boundary
lines — make a state, and that the state is great, intelligent, wealthy,
and powerful, or is small, ignorant, poverty-stricken, and weak, just in
proportion as its people are educated, or a^ they are untrained and raw,
like the natural material about them. It has been too common a polit-
ical teaching that the best government is that which levies the smallest
taxes. The future will modify that doctrine and teach that liberal taxa-
tion, fairly levied and properly applied, is the chief mark of a civilized
people. The savage paj^s no tax."
THE TEACHER MUST BE A LEADER.
"The inauguration of a movement for the betterment of conditions in
any field of human activity must be made primarily by the laborers in
that field. Physicians have not expected lawyers to lead in matters of
sanitation; lawyers have not depended upon farmers for judicial legisla-
tion; farmers have not bettered their conditions except when the repre-
sentatives of their calling are able to lead or to teach others to lead.
No more can we expect great educational advance movements except
under the leadership of teachers or leaders who have been instructed or
inspired by teachers. W^e must lead our own movements so far as we
can, and, in addition, we must often furnish a brief of fact and argument
to those in high political place for a quicker and more influential leader-
ship. The school-teacher can educate public sentiment to see the truth
in regard to public education, so that it will be impossible for those who
are indiff"erent or hostile to the cause to be elected to positions of honor
or power. It is worth a great deal to a county to have a sheriff',
or a judge, or a county commissioner who is, ni time of need, a fighting
friend for the cause of public education. When the masses of the
people, educated and uneducated, are brought to the realization of the
highest interests of themselves and their children, they will not be slow
to develop political educational leaders from their own ranks."
HO! FOR CAROLINA!
BY WILLIAM B. IIARRELL.
Let no lu'art in sorrow weep for otlier clays;
Let no idle dreamer tell in melting lays
Of the merry meetings in the rosy bowers;
For there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours!
Ho! for Carolina! that's the land for me;
In her happy borders roam the brave and free:
And her bright-eyed daughters none can fairer be;
Oh ! it is a land of love and sweet liberty !
Down in Carolina grows the lofty pine,
And her groves and forests bear the scented vine;
Here are peaceful homes, too, nestling 'mid the flowers.
Oh! there is no land on earth like this fair land of ourst
Ho ! for Carolina I etc.
Come to Carolina in the summer-time,
When the luscious fruits are hanging in their prime,
And the maidens singing in the leafy bowers;
Oh! there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours!
Ho ! for Carolina ! etc.
Then, for Carolina, brave and free, and strong,
Sound the meed of praises "in story and in song"
From her fertile vales and lofty granite towers.
For there is no land on earth like this fair land of ours!
Ho! for Carolina! that's the land for me;
In her happy borders roam the brave and free:
And her bright-eyed daughters none can fairer be;
Oh! it is a land of love and sweet liberty!
"It is worth more to the cause of universal educa-
tion TO strengtpien those who are fighting for it than
TO fight those who are pulling the other way. Truth
NEEDS nothing BUT AGITATION IN A FAIR, OPEN FIELD."
Charles Duncan M elver.
"jS^o State which wili> once educate its motiieks need
HAVE AXY PEAK ABOUT FUTT^RE ILLrJ'ETJACY. " ChavlcS DvU-
crm ]\[rlrer.